Browsing by Subject "Covid-19"

Syftet för denna avhandling är att undersöka hur socialarbetare upplever och kritiskt reflekterar kring att etiska principer och etiska överväganden tillämpas i omhändertagandeprocessen i barnskyddet. Syftet är vidare att undersöka etiska konflikter i omhändertagandeprocessen samt om Covid-19 pandemin har haft en påverkan på den etiska tillämpningen i omhändertagandeprocessen. Forskningsmaterialet insamlades genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuerna genomfördes på distans via programmet Microsoft Teams på grund av den rådande Covid-19 pandemisituationen. Sammanlagt fem socialarbetare, som jobbade i barnskyddets öppenvård, deltog i studien. Materialet är analyserat med en teoristyrd innehållsanalys. Som teoretisk referensram har jag använt mig av Paynes (2015) kritiska teori och av Banks (2001) teori om etiska principer. Resultaten fördelades enligt analysen i tre huvudrubriker: etiska principer i omhändertagandeprocessen, etiska konflikter i omhändertagandeprocessen samt Covid-19 pandemins påverkan på omhändertagandeprocessen. Resultaten i studien visar att socialarbetarna tillämpar etiska principer och etiskt tänkande under omhändertagandeprocessen på ett professionellt sätt. Socialarbetarna beskriver att etiskt tänkande ofta är undermedvetet i yrkesrollen. Barnets delaktighet, personlighet och självbestämmanderätt beaktas genom öppen och ärlig kommunikation, genom att lyssna på barnet, tala på barnets nivå, svara på frågor, ta känslor i beaktande och vara närvarande. Att upprätthålla sekretessen under omhändertagandeprocessen ansågs inte problematiskt. Ibland måste etiska principerna ses över och begränsningar måste göras, till exempel då klientens självbestämmanderätt måste begränsas. Socialarbetarna berättar att det förekommer olika etiska konflikter under omhändertagandeprocessen. Placering av spädbarn och ungdomar var en etisk fråga som orsakade konflikter. Även resursbrister i olika stödåtgärder för klienterna ansågs orsaka konflikter. Resultaten gällande Covid-19 pandemins påverkan på omhändertagandeprocessen visar att socialarbetarna upplever att pandemin har påverkat barnskyddsklienternas psykiska välmående och på socialarbetarnas arbetsförhållanden negativt. Bland annat distansmöten och trögare arbetsprocesser togs upp som svårigheter i arbetet under pandemin. Avhandlingen pekar på att det finns behov av att fortsätta studera pandemins påverkan på socialt arbete och kritisk reflektera över socialarbetarnas maktperspektiv och tillämpning av etiska principer i arbetet

This thesis studies differences in income dynamics over the life cycle in Covid-19 sensitive occupations. Analysing life cycle incomes, its distributions and its different components can show significant differences in income dynamics between different genders and education levels. This research used a rich Finnish administrative dataset on incomes and other socioeconomic variables. The selected sample contained data from ages 28-60. A parametric estimation was applied to divide income dynamics into persistent and temporary parameters. Using the equally weighted minimum distance estimation, these parameters were solved on second moments of logarithmic incomes. The income processes were allowed to differ between genders and education. Within each gender and level of education, non-stationary in age and time and shocks of varying persistence were allowed. This thesis presents evidence of notable differences in income dynamics experienced by women and men in Covid-19 sensitive occupations in Finland. Men’s income paths are more persistent than those of women. Temporary shocks can affect incomes of women more than men, which for women is especially apparent amongst lower educated individuals and women aged 28-40. Moreover, both permanent and transitory parameters show heterogeneity by age and education levels. The results resemble the results of previous literature with different data and from different countries. When analysing the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, the results of this thesis do not provide unambiguous results. Income dynamics are similar between those working in all occupations and those working in Covid-19 sensitive occupations.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced the Ministry of Education and Culture to make a historical decision, based on which all schools and educational institutions in Finland switched to dis-tance education on March 18, 2020. If necessary, contact teaching was offered only to pupils in grades 1 – 3 or with special support. The purpose of this dissertation is to record the experience of pupils aged 7 to 12 years and their parents of the distance school routine overshadowed by exclusionary activities of soci-ety. It was mentally a very difficult period. The aim of the dissertation is to find out how dis-tance education was perceived, especially in terms of the mental well-being of pupils and what opportunities the teacher has to support in the community of pupils and other mental well-being in the situation of distance education. This qualitative research has a narrative approach. The material consists of diary-based WhatsApp messages from three students and loosely structured thematic interviews with stu-dents and their parents. The material has been compiled during exceptional circumstances, and it was possible to find out changes in school practices and pupils’ moods as the distance learning period progressed. The results show the importance of different teaching practices on mental well-being of the pupil the differences in the level of teaching practices. The data shows the spring 2020 was challenging. As expected, it highlighted loneliness caused by social isolation but also the po-tential of the school to support community. At it’s best, distance education was challenging but diverse learning environment that devel-oped future skills and self-esteem of the pupil. At worst, it turned out to be a grueling and lonely drill for the pupil when even the provision of basic learning goals was uncertain.

Keväällä 2020 elettiin historiallista aikaa, kun Covid-19 pandemian aiheuttamat poikkeusolot eristivät suomalaiset koteihinsa ensimmäisen kerran. Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena oli tarkastella, millaisia kokemuksia ja tunteita korona-aika ja sen vaatimat rajoitustoimet herättivät suomalaisissa nuorissa sekä millainen rooli sosiaalisella medialla oli poikkeusoloista selviytymisessä. Lisäksi tutkielmassa haluttiin selvittää, näyttäytyykö sosiaalisen median rooli nuorten elämässä erilaisena eri ajankohtina poikkeusolojen pitkittyessä. Aineisto koostui kolmen eri aikana kerätyn kyselylomakkeen avoimista vastauksista, jotka on kerätty 05.04.2020 - 05.05.2020 välisenä aikana. Tutkimukseen osallistui 37 19–29-vuotiasta suomalaista nuorta ja nuorta aikuista. Tutkielman analyysimenetelmänä toimi Tuomen ja Sarajärven (2018) esittelemä laadullinen teoriaohjaava sisällönanalyysi ja analysoinnissa huomioitiin konstruktionistinen ote aineistoa tulkittaessa. Analyysissä teoreettisina käsitteinä toimivat resilienssin ja copingin käsitteet, joita on sovellettu erityisesti kriiseihin ja sosiaalisen median kontekstissa tutkimuskirjallisuuden pohjalta. Tulosten perusteella sosiaalisen median rooli rakentui hyvin tärkeäksi ja kokonaisvaltaiseksi nuorten arjessa koronakeväänä. Sosiaalisen median rooli näyttäytyi selviytymisen kannalta tärkeänä. Se kasvatti poikkeusolojen aikana resilienssiä tarjoamalla mahdollisuuden käyttää erilaisia coping-keinoja. Poikkeusolojen alussa some näyttäytyi alustana, jonne nuoret kokoontuivat. Somea tulkittiin poikkeusolojen alussa hätäkokoontumispaikkana, jonne nuoret suuntasivat etsimään ja jakamaan tietoa sekä purkamaan omia tunteitaan kriisin alussa, mikä kuvastaa somea resilienssin lähteenä. Aineistosta rakentui kuusi erilaista coping-keinoa. Poikkeusolojen aikana nuoret alkoivat hyödyntää somea eri tavoin uudelleenorganisoitumiseen ja arjesta selviytymiseen. Tässä vaiheessa some näyttäytyi ikään kuin työkalupakkina, josta nuoren on ollut mahdollista poimia itselle tarpeellisia coping-keinoja. Aineistosta rakentui coping-keinoja, jotka ovat muun muassa uudelleenorganisoituminen, sosiaalisen vuorovaikutuksen ylläpitäminen, optimismi ja huumori somessa, uuden oppiminen ja itsereflektointi, passiivinen selaaminen todellisuuden pakokeinona ja kontrollin tunteen hakeminen. Poikkeusolojen jatkuessa näyttäytyi somen roolin muuttumista. Analyysissä syntyneistä luokista muodostettiin lopuksi poikkeusolojen aikaisen somen käytön malli, joka kuvaa aineistosta rakentuneita somen rooleja, käytön kolmea vaihetta ja kolmea käyttäjäprofiilia. Tulokset onnistuivat valottamaan nuorten kokemuksia ja syventämään ymmärrystä siitä, millainen rooli sosiaalisella medialla oli poikkeusolojen aikana. Tutkielman tulokset onnistuivat avaamaan näitä ilmiöitä laadullisesti, sillä aikaisemmat selvitykset olivat pääosin tilastollisia, eikä niistä välittynyt nuorten ääni tarpeeksi syvällisesti. Nuorten kokemusten ja sosiaalisen median roolin ymmärtäminen on erityisen tärkeää varsinkin nyt, kun koronakriisi on jatkunut jo yli vuoden.

Mål. Syftet med avhandlingen är att undersöka vilka egenskaper som krävs hos ledaren för att hantera krissituationer och vilken roll ledarskapet har spelat för de anställdas välmående under coronapandemin. Detta för att utveckla en djupare uppfattning om ledarskap under kriser. Teoridelen baserar sig på definitioner av centrala begrepp, vilka i detta fall är kris, Covid-19, krishantering inom organisationer, psykisk hälsa och ledarskap. Utöver dessa diskuteras välmående på arbetsplatsen, ledarskap under kriser och ledaregenskaper i krissituationer. I samband med välbefinnande på arbetsplatsen behandlas även psykosociala riskfaktorer och stress på arbetsplatsen samt JDR- modellen. I analysen behandlas ledarskap under coronapandemin utifrån dessa teoretiska ramverk. Metoder. Denna studie utfördes i form av en systematiskt orienterad litteraturöversikt. Avsikten med studien var att skapa en bred helhetsuppfattning om avhandlingens tema, som också innefattar en kritisk granskning. Det analyserade materialet bestod av åtta vetenskapliga artiklar, som utvalts genom systematiska sökningar i forskningsdatabaser. Resultat och slutsatser. Resultaten i studien visade att det finns diverse ledaregenskaper som krävs för att hantera krissituationer. Resultaten indikerade även att ledarskapet generellt har spelat en viktig och betydelsefull roll för de anställdas välmående under coronapandemin. Ytterligare visade studiens resultat att majoriteten av undersökningarna visar på att ledarskapet har varit bristfälligt under krisen. Slutsatsen som kan dras utifrån studiens resultat är att det förekommer ett signifikant samband mellan ledarskap och välmående.

Tutkielma tarkastelee kasvomaskikeskustelua Helsingin Sanomissa julkaistuissa mielipidekirjoituksissa vuonna 2020. Sen tavoitteena on selvittää, miten kansalaiset argumentoivat kasvomaskien ja niihin liittyvien politiikkatoimivaihtoehtojen puolesta ja niitä vastaan. Covid-19-pandemia on ajankohtainen ja tärkeä tutkimuskohde. Suun ja nenän alueen peittävät henkilökohtaiset suojaimet eli maskit ovat pandemian keskeisiä symboleja. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys on Luc Boltanskin ja Laurent Thévenot’n kehittämä julkisen oikeuttamisen teoria ja siihen kuuluvat seitsemän oikeuttamisen maailmaa. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu 66 mielipidekirjoituksesta, joita on analysoitu laadullisen sisällönanalyysin keinoin. Analyysissa on selvitetty, mitä oikeuttamisen maailmoja ja argumentteja kansalaiset käyttävät esittäessään kannatusta ja kritiikkiä kasvomaskin käyttöä kohtaan sekä sitä, miten kirjoittajat tuovat esille Suomen maskisuosituksen ja mahdollisen maskipakon etuja ja haasteita oikeuttamisen maailmojen valossa. Helsingin Sanomien mielipidekirjoitukset ovat olleet pääosin maskien käytön kannalla jo ennen virallista maskisuositusta. Helsingin Sanomiin kirjoittaville mielipidekirjoitus on yhteiskunnallisen vaikuttamisen kanava, jonka kautta kirjoittajat yrittävät vaikuttaa päättäjiin. Päättäjille viestivät lehdessä aktiivisesti niin asiantuntijat, edustajat kuin yksilötkin. Analyysin perusteella asiantuntijat kirjoittivat aktiivisemmin kasvomaskeista päättäjille kuin yksityishenkilöt. Kansalaisille osoitetut kirjoitukset tulivat useimmiten toisilta kansalaisilta. Asiantuntijoiden ja yksityishenkilöiden repertuaareissa ovat osin eri oikeutusmaailmat. Aineiston perusteella moni kirjoittaja on kokenut elokuun puolessa välissä voimaan tulleen virallisen maskisuosituksen riittämättömäksi. Solidaarisuuden puutteen tai maskittomien itsekkyyden narratiivi johtaa kansalaisuuden maailman perusteluihin nojaavat kirjoittajat kritisoimaan suosituksia ja kannattamaan kansalaiset tasa-arvoistavaa maskipakkoa. Viranomaisten ristiriitainen viestintä ja muuttuvat linjaukset kasvomaskeista ovat luoneet poikkeustilanteessa otollisen areenan kansalaiskeskustelulle, johon myös asiantuntijat osallistuvat. Tämä poliittisen sosiologian alalle sijoittuva tapaustutkimus on siis myös demokratian toteutumisen tutkimusta ja maskin käyttöön liittyneiden politiikkatoimien vaikutusten arviointia. Kasvomaskeja yhteiskuntatieteellisestä näkökulmasta käsitteleviä tutkimuksia on julkaistu toistaiseksi hyvin vähän Suomessa ja maailmalla. Tämä tutkimus valottaa toistaiseksi erittäin vähän tutkittua aihetta ja lisää tietoa Covid-19-pandemian yhteiskunnallisista vaikutuksista tarjoten kiinnostavia lähtökohtia jatkotutkimukselle.

Abstract Faculty: Social Sciences Program: Economics Line of study: General line Author: Juho Ivaska Name of work: Mitigating the Covid-19 shock – A simulation study on the cost compensation schemes of Finland, Norway and the United States Type of work: Master’s thesis Month and year: 11/2021 Number of pages: 43 Keywords: Corporate subsidies, Covid-19, Simulation Storage location: University of Helsinki library Abstract: During the Covid-19 pandemic, many countries implemented sizeable support programs for companies suffering from the pandemic. This thesis compares the effectiveness of the Business Cost Support of Finland, the Norwegian Business Compensation Scheme and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) of the USA in terms of mitigating pandemic effects on firm profitability, liquidity and solvency. All three programs are cost support schemes but they differ in what costs are covered and in their eligibility criteria. The comparison is executed by simulating the pandemic-induced turnover shock on Finnish enterprises under each support scheme. Statistics Finland’s detailed Financial statement data from 2019 provides the starting position for the simulation. The turnover shock is one year of length and assigned to firms based on their industry code. Effectiveness of the support schemes is measured by mitigation rate which describes the share of the effects of the pandemic that the scheme can mitigate. Additionally, the costs of the schemes are considered. This thesis finds that the Norwegian scheme was the most effective in decreasing the number of unprofitable firms as well as the number of firms with liquidity troubles. It ranks the highest in all but one measure even when adjusted by its second highest price. The Finnish scheme yielded the highest price-adjusted mitigation rate in average quick ratio but trailed the Norwegian scheme slightly in all other categories. The PPP was the most expensive of the support schemes and thus the least effective in all the profit and liquidity related measures. This thesis concludes that compensating fixed costs and targeting the support carefully were crucial in supporting the worst hit businesses for a reasonable price. The Finnish Business Cost Support fared well compared to its counterparts but allowing for higher and lower single support payments would have most likely increased its effectiveness. If the target of the scheme is maintaining employees on firm payrolls, a pure wage compensation scheme as the PPP yields better results.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, alternative online news media were predominately thought to spread false information on the coronavirus and heavily engage in conspiracy theories. The populist and far-right news outlets especially were said to strategically exploit people’s fears to further their own hate campaigns against migrants, political elites and the established media. This research aims to give a more detailed account of how five German populist far-right digital news outlets framed the ongoing crisis from January to May 2020 and managed to integrate the topic into their established narratives. For this qualitative content analysis, articles from the digital news sites of Compact, Junge Freiheit, Eigentümlich Frei, Deutsche Stimme and Zuerst were analysed regarding the topics, claims, actors and rhetoric devices that they used. The result of the study was that, rather than being swayed by strategic whims to exploit the crisis at all costs, the outlets relied on their established framing habits and were able to incorporate the crisis into all of their usual reporting. They were able to integrate the topic into overarching narratives, which not only confirmed worldviews held by their established reader base, but may also hold significant sway over new readers seeking reassurance in uncertain times. Finally, the thesis directed attention to the importance that language and presentation played in accomplishing this balancing act, establishing the need for further research on the language of the populist far right online.

On 26th of March in 2020 South Africa headed into lockdown in the start of Covid-19 pandemic impacting more severely the wellbeing of the most disadvantaged groups in the society. The structural characteristics of the social protection system that people had to rely on created many challenges putting the beneficiaries even more at risk contracting the virus. Existing research has examined the potential of cash transfers programs in reducing global inequalities having a positive consensus of the broad beneficial impact of the programs to health, consumption and families well-being. However, the perspective of the beneficiaries and the violent structures of the social protection system has had less attention. This thesis aims to address this gap by examining the access barriers to cash grants during Covid-19 pandemic using structural and neoliberal violence as a conceptual tool showcasing that the programs will have limited possibilities to decrease poverty in the long run and meet the aims of the programs if the root causes of inequality are not addressed at the same time. 14 newspaper articles containing a keyword “social grant” from the year 2020 were chosen for ethnographic document analysis from the online media GroundUp. GroundUp’s background in community work, focus on the lived experiences of the people in their stories and the ability to cover stories of marginalized people were the main reasons to select the media. The articles chosen explored people’s experiences with the social grant system revealing the structural violence through the hardships people faced while trying to cope with the loss of income due the pandemic. In the ethnographic document analysis a mix of inductive and deductive strategies were used to develop a coding frame based on the theory of neoliberal and structural violence. The experiences of people show how the socio-economic background and poverty made grant beneficiaries more vulnerable to Covid-19 making it impossible to follow safety measures while trying to access the social grants. Having to travel for a long time on public transportation, staying in crowded places for long periods of time and sleeping outside with other people increases the possibility of getting infected and acted as examples of how structural violence manifests itself during the process of grant collection. Beneficiaries also faced unnecessary physical and mental distress while waiting as well as facing uncertainty and anxiety about the survival of the household. Overall, the results show how the lack of money and the inability to meet basic needs of the household were the main concerns of the people while Covid-19 and getting ill remained as secondary. The thesis reveals the ways grant admission process brought a new dimension of suffering for those in vulnerable situations, reproducing and amplifying the intensity of pre-existing structural violence in the system. It highlights the fact that the exposure to the virus is tightly related to the socio-economic background and the structures of the society that determine the everyday patterns and range of choices people can make. For these programs to have real transformative power to fight poverty and inequality, more focus needs to be put on the ideologies and policies that shape the structures of neoliberal societies.

The aim of this study is to examine parents' beliefs on what impact Covid-19 has had on our young children's physical activity. With the term young children, I refer to children aged from one to six years old. The research questions for this study are the following: 1. How do parents view the impact Covid-19 has had on children's physical activity? 2. What kind of change in the child’s physical activity can be seen? 3. Is there a change in the child’s attitude towards physical activity? In the chapter physical activity some background on how children master physical movements will be presented. The chapter contains children’s physical development, as well as benefits and the needs for physical activity. Physical development and physical activity go hand in hand, developing physically often leads to the child becoming more physically active. In the chapter Covid-19 and everyday life, viewpoints on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected young children’s everyday life and especially physical activity are examined. The Covid-19 pandemic led to activities organized for families with children, such as story-time in library, music-play at the library/church and family café etc. stopped to decrease the spreading of the Covid-19 virus. A short complete lockdown took place in the beginning of spring 2020, where early childhood centers closed, and only parents/guardians who could not stay at home with their children had the right to bring their child to early childhood education. The parents that had the opportunity to stay home with their child were offered online early childhood education via the early childhood education center that they normally attend to. How much activities were sent out depended on the early childhood centers approach and beliefs (Hilppö, et al. 2020; Nurhonen et al. 2021). However, it was decided later that early childhood education centers remained open during the pandemic, and children were offered everyday life as normal as possible. Even though, early childhood education centers opened, the Covid-19 restrictions still existed (Nurhonen et al. 2021). How these restrictions were followed depended on the family. With the use of questionnaire, that were sent out to early childhood education centers and parent-child activities I have tried to get a view on how parents view the impact Covid-19 has had on young children’s physical activity. Has the pandemic affected young children’s physical activity? What are the parents’ beliefs? and how well with Covid-19 going on can children be physically active? I collected 103 answers from the questionnaire. Looking at the collected data I have also tried to see how and what attitudes towards physical activity children have. Do they enjoy being outdoors, physically active and has this changed during the pandemic? What can be concluded from this study is that even though the Covid-19 pandemic has been going on for 2 years it has not, according to the parents of the children, affected young children's physical activity that markedly. The children of this study seem to be as physically active as before the Covid-19 pandemic. This study is only a sample of a specific number of people, trying to explain how Covid-19 has affected the daily lives of children. Further study is needed to fully understand the changes made by Covid-19.